[text: Counting Crows

One for sorrow

Two for mirth

Three for a wedding

Four for a birth

Five for silver

Six for gold

Seven for a secret ne'er to be told

Eight for a wish

Nine for a kiss

Ten a bird you must not miss

Eleven for hope

Twelve for health

Thirteen beware of the devil himself]

God I dig old nursery rhymes like this! Very witchy! ^.^

I'm considering making little write-ups for the books & articles I manage to finish. Idk if it's quite a review, but I realized that there's really not a lot of resources for my weird interests, and I honestly have a hard enough time finding the information I want/need. Just a little guide with my experiences like "oh I feel like I learned a lot from this one" and "this author has some weird concussions but some otherwise helpful info" to "omg you f-ing nationalist"

Will probably take me a while; I've got some fat books to finish. But that's where that's at.

The Horned Serpent

So before I get started on this one, I have a couple of things to get out of the way. First, I will be using she/her pronouns for the Horned Serpent; this is just because UPG and because I'm used to it. I know someone else who venerates/worships the Horned Serpent, uses they/them pronouns for them, and considers them to be beyond gender / present as whatever gender they feel like. Second, I will be focusing on my interpretation of her on the Gundestrup Cauldron, in part because there's really not a lot of literature on her, even when you include works that specifically analyze Cernunnos' depictions. Third (and related), I will be using the National Museum of Denmark's estimate as to when/where the Gundestrup Cauldron was made, which is roughly in the Danubian or Wallachian Plain(s) around 150 BCE to 1 CE (link).

So first a little historical & cultural context. This area, as far as culture groups, would have been a heck of a melting pot, between the Dacians and Thracians that already lived there, the Scythians coming in and also living near by, the Gauls that moved in around the 300s-200s, the Greeks who came up and started establishing colonies along the Black Sea in the 300s, and the Romans, encroaching on everyone's business around the time the Cauldron was built. A pretty solid primer on the history of the region is A Companion to Ancient Thrace, published by Wiley Blackwell.

So I'm gonna try to make sense but it might be a little disorganized going forward. Anyway, onto the actual thoughts & stuff. So anyone who's taken even a passing glance at Cernunnos is well aware of the Horned Serpent, since she is present in basically every ancient art you can find with him. On the Gundestrup Cauldron, she appears three times, all on the interior panels. One is at the Hero's heel, who's holding the wheel; a second is at the end of a line of heroic riders, which seems to be a Thracian horseman motif; and of course the famous Cernunnos panel. In Thracian Tales of the Gundestrup Cauldron, published by Najade Press, Jan Best presents an interpretation of the interior panels as a story, and assumes that Cernunnos is singing in his famous panel, specifically about the secrets of immortality, a concept which was very popular at the time. I agree with this and I also assume that the depiction of Taranis / the wheel god is that he is also singing, and if he is singing then the lions and griffins - both predators associated with kingship (griffins were protectors of the pharaoh, and also decorated certain tombs out in ancient Persia), then the action of passing off the Wheel must have symbolic meaning, such as being handed the Wheel of Heaven.

The Gundestrup Cauldron's exterior also has very clear influence from the Scythians, you can almost 1:1 map the gods based on Herodotus's retelling of the Pontic stories. I believe there are also thematic parallels going on here on the Wheel God panel, featuring a new god/king being given the symbol of his domain. Wikipedia actually has some relatively thorough articles on Scythian religion as well as the genealogical myth specifically, which is the myth that I personally associate with the wheel-giving panel. As well, the animals in this panel don't appear to be particularly concerned with attacking anyone - if anything, the griffins and lionesses are slightly tilted from one to the next, which makes me think it's more likely that they are dancing, especially if the human/divine subjects are singing, especially if the human with the helmet is receiving a high honor, potentially his rank amongst the gods. In this panel, she is just at the hero's feet, not really joining the parade if the animals, but clearly not ready to attack either, but her attention does seem to be drawn towards the hero.

The final panel she is on is the panel featuring the nine soldiers and the heroized dead, represented by the "Thracian horseman" motif. After Alexander the Great and his penchant for having statues of himself be on horseback, it became popular for wealthy men and nobles to depict themselves riding horseback to a goddess or sacred tree (unfortunately my best source discussing this in English is also not great and he comes up with some..... questionable theories), but the popularity seems to have blown up to the point where even deities such as Zeus were depicted on horseback in a similar manner. There are also mentions in a few other sources that the Thracians believed in the ability for people to essentially become immortal after death. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble sorting out my notes and this essay has been nagging me for weeks now.

Anyway, I interpret this panel as what is expected to happen to us after we die - the "ordinary", so to speak, are lead to a deity, likely to be reincarnated (this is honestly just a guess on my part largely due to the popularity of that in Greece for ever, and Grecian influence was in full swing by the time the Cauldron was made), meanwhile the "extraordinary" are lead by the Horned Serpent.

This is where I tie all three together to my upg/theology: The Horned Serpent is a friend and ally to Cernunnos. He teaches the secrets of life after death to those who will listen. The Horned Serpent is by his side during his teaching, and when we die, if we have proven ourselves worthy during life, she guides us through the trials of the afterlife. If we succeed in these trials, we are awarded with apotheosis - becoming a god or godlike - and she stands by our side as we earn this prize.

@musingmelsuinesmelancholy sorry it took me so long x.x & I hope this makes sense!

Quick update for those concerned:

Life has been pretty busy - I'm still catching up on Christmas presents & promises, and so I've barely had time for hobbies and not a lot of brain space for much else. I have started writing my Horned Serpent thoughts, it just might be a minute x.x

i wish i could raise my ancestors from the dead and just start asking questions. like guess who except its which one of you had these customs and where did you learn them, until i have an answer.

Forgive me if this is too personal but did you come to understand the horned serpent as a god due to UPG or academic research?

If it’s the latter would you mind recommending some resources?

I’m asking because of a dream I had involving a horned snake and a certain snake bearing stellar-spring deity who’s made themselves known to me.

It's largely UPG, but I do believe that the portrayal of the Gundestrup Cauldron supports at least the idea of the horned serpent being a helpful spirit. If it'll help, I can do a post at a later date explaining my interpretation of that, and maybe share the clue by four that got me looking more into her (pronouns are also upg, but more chill).

Hi! Sorry if this sounds stupid but is polyamory something that’s like inherent to a person, similar to sexuality, or is it more of a choice? - Someone who’s thinking about polyamory

Not a stupid question at all! You've stumbled onto one of The Great Debates of Polyamory🧑‍🎓, actually.

The TL;DR is that for a lot of people, it feels similar to a sexuality 🏳️‍🌈 in that they wouldn't be happy any other way and they were "born like this". Some people see it as more of a lifestyle choice: they could stay with just one partner, but its not as appealing to them for whatever reason. 🤷

Personally, I don't plan on ever having a monogamous relationship again. I'm fine for a year or two, but then I start getting really restless and feel trapped, even when I loved my only partner very much and did want to be with them forever. For myself, it feels at least a related topic to sexuality. For example, I went through many of the same feelings discovering I was poly as discovering I was bi (is there something wrong with me?😣 What will my family think?😬 etc).

Whether anyone views themselves as "queer" for being poly I don't really get involved in the debate, but we fight many of the same fights, so either way, solidarity now and always 💪🤝❣️

I NEED this!

could someone spot me $27 for todays expenses? i didnt plan to spend that much but i got lunch and helped out an unhoused lady. maybe we can keep the help train going :')

venmo is julianluci

0/27$

(reblog to boost)

"what do we do about people who fake disabilities to get ssi" we throw them a fucking party for pulling off the most difficult and unrewarding grift of all time. literally i don't care

npbody can convince me that cultural christianity in western culture, particularly the USA, doesn't exist when i specifically remember one time me and my family used to go to this plant based restaurant a few years back, and i remember that the owner was openly Buddhist and had put Buddha as part of the logo for her restaurant, and then I had watched a show that had a segment about Buddha, which I found really cool, so I proceeded to tell my conservative Christian mother about what I learned, then she told me "that's nice honey, but I go here for the food, NOT the politics." with a passive aggressive tone, and i'm not gonna lie, i think it's FUCKED UP that being a part of a religion that isn't Christianity or even being atheist/agnostic is "too political" and is even considered "pandering to an agenda"

these birds are proud to be aro and i hope you can be too

Black Lives Matter

intersex shark !!! 💛💜💛

what if every Tumblr user suddenly looses their mouse?

[Image: Digital painting from YuumeiArt; piece centers on a mermaid washed up onto the shore, her bones exposed, with plants growing out of her body along the beach, with lighting focused on her face and chest, but under the water features several fish skeletons, shredded plastics of multiple colors, and discarded water bottles.]

I love this artist, probably my favorite one ever. I love how Yuumei plays with whimsy while keeping things deeply grounded in emotion. I love how Yuumei can encapsulate these feelings and themes in a way where you're both the viewer and the experiencer.

Painting process for Once Upon a Sea